Commissions!

 I had requests to make a few things over the holidays.

First, I was asked to make a tea cosy.  Not something I've made before, but the customer gave me an old one as a template for size she wanted. I couldn't work out for a while how the lining was joined all the way around to the outer while obviously being made separately - but I sorted it out eventually.

 The request was for a signature colour of orange, and, as usual, I made 2 to give a choice. She chose the teapot one!

Something else I've not made before is a dog bandana. Daughter requested these for her 2 dogs and, at her suggestion, they are made to be slid over the dog's collar as opposed to tying on.

Last, and something I have made before, was a request for a lavender heart to add to a bag of goodies as a gift.

I treated myself to this book last week after no success in dropping hints before Christmas.

One good result over the holidays, though, was the re-siting of my shed at the back of the house. Unfortunately, I haven't been near it (or a sewing machine, knitting needle or book) for well over a week after succumbing to a dose of the flu that has knocked me for six. I think I'm on the home straight with it now, and managed to type some invoices for a client today. Luckily, I've not been needed at work since she moved house, because they still have no internet to receive orders.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Reading!?

WARNING: The text in this post has absolutely nothing to do with the pictures!!

My list of classic book reading was seriously short until about 15 years ago. So short, there was nothing on it apart from books I had to read at school. Then, I was given a book voucher for my birthday and decided that my list needed adding to, so I bought The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.....and loved it!  

A scrappy cushion for the stall

A new world opened to me and I've gradually added more to the list since (Lorna Doone, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Moonstone etc). I've just finished a copy of Jane Eyre, bought from a church fundraiser last year, that was published the year I was born. 

2 more phone cases made on request (but not suitable as phone bigger than I was told)

I felt obliged to try a couple of Jane Austin's but, as I might have mentioned before, I just didn't get what all the fuss is about. To me, they lack substance and plot compared with the others. Each to his own! I still have copies of The Mill on the Floss, Little Women and the complete works of Charles Dickens waiting to be read - so it'll be a while before I need to go looking for more!

These phone cases are big enough, and the right one was chosen.

Something else I find difficult to understand is when people read the same book over and over again, sometimes once a year. I once re-read a book that I had remembered really enjoying, but it was nowhere near the same second time around. It even spoilt my good memories of reading it the first time! I'd be very wary of doing it again.

Bag crocheted out of home made t-shirt yarn. 

 I also believe that the amount of enjoyment a reader gets is relative to their situation at the time. What I mean is - you may read a book that has a profound effect on you because it unconsciously resonates with your circumstances or mood at the time. But if you read it a couple of years earlier or later, in different circumstances, it might have little effect on you and you would enjoy it a lot less. That's what I think anyway!

Don't you wish I'd stuck to posting about crafting now!? Ha ha
Bye for now
Teresa x

2014 Use My Books Challenge!

The consensus seems to be that this phone cover is the favourite. It was also the one that my friend, J, bought for herself (along with one of the other cases, to give to a friend of hers). Can you see the difference in it from the last post, though? J wasn't keen on the loop fastening (not because of the look of it, but the fiddly-ness) so I replaced it with a flap that has a press-stud fastening.

And this cushion is what the pile of grannies from the last post ended up as. It will now be added to my stitching group's stock for the school fete in May.

The design was inspired by a combinations of patterns in this book, which I bought last year with birthday money.

I've bent the rules in my 2014 Challenge to include cookery books, because, like my craft books, I don't get enough use out of these either. I tend to stick to the same familiar cook books (or not use them at all) when there is plenty of inspiration in the rest. 

The chocolate brownies are from this book, and yes, they were cooked in the slow cooker! My son and his girlfriend bought this book for my birthday, last year. I didn't follow the recipe exactly because I only had a quarter of the required cocoa, and no chocolate chips (I added ground almonds to make up the cocoa). They turned out fine though. I think they'd have been too chocolatey with all the cocoa, if that's possible!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Another New Hat and a Challenge!

Hi all!
OH and I got back from a week in Austria on Saturday: a skiing holiday, on which (as usual) I did not ski. I was joined in my week-long apres-ski by J who was not skiing due to the fact she is expecting her first baby. During the week we celebrated, amongst our group of 6, a 50th birthday and an engagement. We knew about the birthday and went prepared, but the engagement was a complete surprise.

In previous years I've made myself a new hat to take away, so decided to do the same again.  This time it was knitted in a cable design. It was supposed to be knitted on a circular needle, but I didn't have one the right size so I adapted the pattern to knit it on a pair of needles. It's also supposed to be more like a beret but, due to my tendency to knit too tightly, it's more like a beanie (The pattern is called Saffron but I don't remember where I got it from I'm afraid. I have a pdf if anyone is interested.)

On the last day of the holiday, J and I bought tickets to join the rest of the group at the top of the ski lift for lunch. I was really pleased we did, because the other time I went up it was too foggy to see the amazing view.

Another day we watched the men ski, from the bar half-way up the mountain. We managed to pick them out with the help of M's rabbit ears.

Back to normal now, and to the 'challenge' I decided to set myself for this year - or however long I decide to continue. I felt that I hadn't got my money's worth out of the crafty books and magazines I've bought over the years. When I thought about it in more detail, though, I realised I've taken inspiration from my books for a few of my projects, but the only item I've made from scratch and word-for-word is the knitting needle roll (above), the pattern for which I followed from The Crafters' Companion

Because it's my challenge I'm not going to put any pressure on myself, such as a time limit or amount of projects. The only rule is that there are no rules. As you know by now, I don't plan much when I start a project. It just sort of evolves. But this challenge means I'll occasionally have to plan a little. And it doesn't mean following patterns exactly - I might just use them for inspiration. As I said before - My Challenge. My rules!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

A Knock-On Effect!

 After de-cluttering and sorting out the bookshelves on the landing last week, we were left with some extra space; and, in this house, I find that any extra space is usually filled quite quickly, usually when I'm not looking. The only solution was to fill it myself first, and if it solved another clutter situation at the same time then 'all well and good'.

This was the clutter situation in question; kitchen shelves and tops filled with cookery books. It might seem logical to have them in the kitchen, but there are many more than this on the shelves upstairs, so they may as well all be together, and tidy.

Voila!

It didn't take long to gather them all up and rearrange the shelves. I should do this more often - it feels good!

Talking about books, I think my crafting books probably out number the cookery books (not including my son's cookery books or the pile under the stairs that came from MIL's when she passed away - but let's not think about all those!). Above is the shelf of craft books in my shed.

This shelf is the craft part of the shelves on the landing, and below are a few strays that came from the shed and made their way onto the coffee table in the sitting room.

And let's not forget the magazines.

Although I've made a few projects from these, I don't think I've really made the best of them, or got my money's worth.  I'm going to make it my mission, in 2014, to remedy that. So look out for progress on this, starting in the New Year.

 Now, here's what I have been up to the last couple of weeks. Only one of these  projects was made completely from a pattern and none of them were from my books - for the rest I used my usual method of 'winging it'.

 This bag started out as a simple, hexagon drawstring bag: purchased from a charity shop. Before starting any reconstruction, I removed the lining, and replaced 5 or 6 of the hexagons because the fabrics were a bit 'nasty'. For the revamp I added some bits of chopped up, charity shop corduroy trousers and a new lining, then shaped the bag with pleats at the top and boxed bottom corners.

An unplanned, and useful, side-effect of the construction means that the bag is totally reversible!

 This little bag and purse set is made from a pair of baby's cords. The useful, in-built decoration meant less work for me! The handle is made from half a belt.

Although this crocheted blanket is not from a book or magazine, it is inspired by a scarf in one of the books.

Motivated by the rapidly dropping temperatures, these fingerless mittens knitted up quickly. I haven't tackled knitting in-the-round for a while, but was pleased that this time I was able to work out how to knit them from the right side, rather than inside-out .

That's it for today then. I started off with the intention of making two posts with these photos, but they seem to have merged into one long one!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Decorate and Discover!

OH painted the stairwell and landing the other week. And I only mentioned it once before!  It meant removing the books and shelves from the wall, so that was my job.

I haven't got any 'before' pictures because, to be honest, there isn't much difference.  It's the same colour, just a bit brighter and whiter, and there are fewer books on the shelves, after a good sort out. A small pile has gone in the bin, another pile is ready for the charity shop and a couple of books made their way back to the shelf, after DD had a sort through!

This sort of job always takes longer than you think, especially when you come across books you forgot you had. I kept the Enid Blyton story book I was given when I left the Brownies in March 1974; a paperback copy of The Borrowers dated 1964, that looks as though it has never been read; and a hardback copy of The Selfish Giant dated 1967, that cost "13s. 6d. NET".

Inside the cross-stitch book, above, I discovered these two unfinished projects and a pair of scissors. The little cat is a design from the book, but I couldn't find the pansies in it anywhere. I am probably responsible for the pansies, and one of the children probably sewed the cat, but none of us can remember them!

I tried a different variation of zipped purse last week: padded and quilted ones. The first one is pieced together and the second is one piece. They are solid and substantial, and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Next time, I'll have pictures of another finished crocheted baby/lap blanket and, hopefully, a hexie bag that is currently on the kitchen sewing table.

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Catch-Up!

How about this view of the gorgeous Welsh countryside. Isn't it lovely? OH and I were out looking for blackberries on one of the last warm days of our long summer. Do you see the white house at the bottom of the hill? We are heading down towards it. It was getting a bit late in the season for blackberries so we had quite a struggle to fill even one ice-cream container between us.

 With cold weather imminent it's time to start thinking about making more snuggly things for my craft stall. This scarf is the second I've made from an un-run jumper that I didn't wear much. I also bought a huge bag of yarn from the church Autumn Fayre yesterday, so more scarves may be on the way.

I made 4 more bags, to add to my stall on 26th Oct, like the one I made for myself (under the scarf in the pic above); I sold one already and will be selling another on Tuesday! I'll have to get going on some replacements now, but it's a good problem to have.

I've finished my proofreading course and it's helped me realise how much I still have to learn. I have a few related books around the house that I've not looked at before, but I'm glad I left them until after doing the course. They will be good for revision and reinforcement, and they'll have lots of extra information too. Luckily the proofreading work I've had so far has almost paid for the course.

Bag pics next time, and also, hopefully, a finished quilt!

Bye for now
Teresa x

So Lucky!

The other week, I finally got around to spending the vouchers I received for my birthday in March.

I took my daughter with me to enjoy the afternoon tea for 2 at The Angel Hotel. As well as the 3 tiers of scrumptious goodies above, we had scones with jam and cream and pots of tea.  Other people having afternoon tea around us took some of their cakes home in boxes because they didn't (or couldn't) eat them all. We didn't need a box!!

 It took me 3 visits to The Woolcroft to decide what to spend that voucher on.  I wanted the large knitting needles, to knit my home-made t-shirt yarn, but couldn't decide what else to get. There was too much choice - but I eventually decided on this lovely book; mainly for the stylish photographs. Apparently, you can buy ready-made t-shirt yarn now - someone's got their finger on the pulse!

On the crafting front, I've been trying to finish off some of my larger, ongoing projects, so there isn't much to show. This is my tumbling blocks quilt progress. The finished size was, as usual, governed by me stopping when I'd had enough of it. You can see that I've worked out a shape to fill in the top and bottom, to make it straight - next, I have to do the same for the sides.

Car Update. If you remember, we had to leave our car in France, and it was delivered home a few days later.  Well, I'm pleased to say that it is now fixed and back where it belongs. The repairs weren't cheap but, luckily, the money came back to us in fortuitous circumstances a few days later.  First, when looking for son's passport, hubby found an old building society book. He cashed it in and closed the account resulting in enough money to pay the labour costs for the car. A couple of days later, I received an unexpected letter from the HMRC with a tax refund that covered the price of the parts!!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Giveaway Result!

 Just a quick post to announce the winner of the The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob.  I was surprised there weren't more entries because I had lots more visitors than usual.

A little something I've been working on.

I used an online random number generator which picked number 8 out of the nine comments, which was lucky Penny Edwards.  Congratulations Penny - I hope you read this post because I wasn't able to find an email address for you as I'm not on google+. Please leave me a comment with your address (which I won't publish) so I can send the book to you.

If you'd like another chance to win, pop on over to Very Berry Handmade where Ali is also offering a copy as a giveaway, with a much more professional-sounding review than mine! But hurry because there's not much time left!

A pic from our local music festival - The bell ringers on the hotel terrace.

I'm off on holiday for a while so I'll check when I get back whether Penny has been in touch. 

Bye for now
Teresa x

Book Review: The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob, and a Giveaway!

I was surprised and excited recently to be offered, a free copy of The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob, by the publishers, to review. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to receive a lovely, shiny-new, stitching book to look at. Not having reviewed a book since I was at school it was a little daunting. But of course, it was nothing like school; actually wanting to read this book, being the main difference.

It's been a little while since I've done any embroidery but, after being inspired by this book, I'll definitely be picking up a needle and thread again very soon. Caroline Zoob doesn't profess to be an expert embroiderer but rather calls the process 'drawing with a needle', the result of which is a very individual book, full of designs that are brimming with character. The stylish cover is the first clue as to what is in store.

Lovers of a simple, minimalist style would be in their element with this book, but those who prefer more elaborate decorative touches will also find much inspiration. I've picked out a few of my favourite pictures to show you.

Using the projects in The Hand-Stitched Home you could add embroidered detail to personalise your own possessions, or create new, decorative pieces from scratch. Whether an experienced or novice stitcher, this book has ideas for all levels of skill.

The projects in the book are arranged into five sections; Making pictures, On the edge, At the table, The soft stuff and At the window, followed by the extra, useful stuff, like templates, stitches and techniques. My favourite projects are the place mats, window pelmet and cushions.

It's written in an easy-going, chatty style, with Caroline's love of the art of embroidery, and the whole creative process, shining through. I like the fact that the list of materials required for each project is not too specific, allowing each individual stitcher to use what they may already have, match the design to their own colour scheme or put their own twist on it.

The instructions are easy to understand, and detailed enough to complete the projects, as pictured, but Caroline positively encourages interchanging the designs between projects, and experimenting.

The photography is amazing, showing off the designs to perfection, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the photo captions contain 'new', useful information (and are not just regurgitated from the main text).

Luckily for you, I've decided to give away this copy!! All you have to do for a chance of winning it, is to leave a comment on this post. It can be about anything you like, but if you need a little nudge, how about telling me your experiences of embroidery. I would also be very happy for you to blog about this giveaway, leaving me a separate comment telling me so, and, therefore, earning another entry. The competition is open to anyone, anywhere. I will draw the winner using a random number generator in 2 weeks time, on 19th June, and announce the result shortly after.

If you are not the lucky winner but would still like to get your hands on a copy here's a special offer for you.

To order The Hand-Stitched Home at the discounted price of £16.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS219. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS219 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Small Learning Curve!

Well, my first foray into the world of craft fairs is over.  I enjoyed the day spent talking all things crafty and business with my fellow stall-holders.  We had a steady trickle of visitors in the morning but it was very quiet after lunch.  Although the day was bright and sunny, temperatures had dropped dramatically and the wind was very cold so there weren't many passers-by to draw in.

When I made my first sale, I wanted to jump up and down with glee but, being with experienced crafters, I kept my cool and tried to act like I was used to it  :-)

 This is my stall, which I was quite happy with, but I learned a few lessons from the others.  First, I need at least 3 times more stock. Second, I need to get platforms and/or hanging equipment to display my goods to better effect. Thirdly, I need to get some printed information such as business cards.  If you think I have enough stock take a look below!!

 This is Elsie Rag Bag's stall and what a stall should look like.  She's only been doing craft fairs for a year but has had a soft furnishing business for much longer. And, as she said to me, she only has to top up between fairs, but I still need to build my core stock.

This is Holly Pop Cakes' tempting stall with her halloween themed cakes.  Holly's business is different from us in that it's more about taking orders and promotion than selling on the day. 

Also at the fair was my friend Bev, signing and selling copies of her book.  She's been doing really well and sold a few copies here as well as at her local book launch event last Wednesday (where I got my signed copy).  You might remember me blogging about how I did the first proof-read of it for her.  I'm also going to a business workshop soon that she's hosting, to get help with that side of selling my crafts.

When I was a girl I remember being enchanted by a story in a book where a girl set up a toy hospital where she fixed broken dolls, teddies and the like.  I can almost see the illustrations now; simple black outlines of the girl in a room with little beds where toys lay with bandages on an arm or a patch on an eye.  I wanted to be that girl.  I was reminded of this when DS's girlfriend brought me her favourite childhood soft toy that her father had found in his attic.  It was a bit worse for wear with it's head almost hanging off.  She asked me to fix it for her, and here it is, post-surgery.  As good as new! It's funny how things work out!

Progress since last time:

Finished another cushion for the craft fair at the last minute (the blue and white one above)
Sold 5 items at the fair
Started knitting another scarf because 2 people at the fair wanted the same one.
Pink cot-sized quilt started but didn't get finished in time.
Knitted lamp-shade - on  hold until other items done.

Bye for now
Teresa x